Anyone with U-Verse?

[sportsfanMAW]

Hi I'm looking into getting ATT's U-Verse as soon as it becomes available in my area (which should be very soon as its available a few blocks away). However I have a few questions that I was hoping some current users could answer for me.

First off, we currently have 5 SD-TV's in the house. Two have DVR's (we're with Direct tv). I like the idea of being able to record 4 shows at once and watch them on any tv. Most of the shows that I record my parents record also so it would be convenient. My question is, if we are recording say two or three shows at once can we still watch different channels in different rooms? For example, the living room is watching channel 5 my brother is watching 6 sister is watching channel 7 and i'm watching channel 8 all while recording a few shows?

Second, how is the internet for you guys? I was looking at getting either the 6Mbps or the 10Mbps. Currently I have ATT express which is only a mere 1.5Mbps download and is extremely slow (in fact I use my neighbors wireless a lot! lol). I have two computers, a macbook and an imac, the occasional xbox live games and an ipod touch. Will the signal still be strong with the 6Mbps? or should i up for the 10Mbps.

Thanks so much for all your help, and please, feel free to leave any other reviews of the service you have.

 

[yg17]

I have U-Verse. Basically, you can have 4 streams coming into the house. So if you have 4 TVs tuned to a different channel, you can't watch or record anything else. If TVs 1 and 2 are on the same channel, and 3 and 4 are each on different channels, then you're only using 3 streams and can watch or record one more. Basically, it's any combination of 4 streams. You can record 4 programs at once, but the other TVs in the house can only watch one of the channels you're recording. Or record two and watch two, whatever. But like I said, if two TVs are watching the same thing, or if the DVR is recording on a channel and someone else is watching that same channel on another TV, that counts as one stream. If you ever upgrade to HD, one or two of those streams can be HD, depending on how far you are from the VRAD (the box thingy outside where your signal comes in from). For example, I get 1 HD and 3 SD streams at a time (or 4 SD/0 HD if I'm watching or recording 4 separate SD streams). Others closer than me can get 2 HD/2 SD.

Also, a word of caution about the DVR...you said you have 2 with DTV. AT&T will only give you one DVR. You can watch recorded shows on any TV in the house, however, only the DVR can pause and rewind live TV (the other boxes can pause/rewind/fast forward already recorded shows). Also, if you're watching already recorded shows, those do not count against the stream limit. So, if 4 of your TVs are all watching a separate program, the 5th TV can't watch live TV (at least not a different channel), but it can watch something that's already on the DVR.

Finally, I have the 10mbps service, and it's plenty fast for me. It sounds like for your needs, 6mbps would be plenty though. I would probably be fine on 6 too. If you find 6 isn't enough, you can always upgrade.

BTW, if you have any more questions, feel free to send me a PM. I actually work for AT&T and while my job there has nothing to do with U-Verse, most of us employees know a lot about it since it's the company's big thing now, plus, I have it in my own house so I have experience with it just from watching too much TV And if I don't know the answer to something, I can probably find out.

 

[sdsvtdriver]

I read U-verse lags for things like XBox live. True?

 

[mscriv]

I've had Uverse for over a year now and have really been pleased with the service. Just make sure you thoroughly test out all of your installation options, especially since you have so many TV's. For example, with my set up there were lots of problems with the signal dropping out until they ran a Cat5 cable to carry the signal from outside the house to the interior gateway. The gateway is a central box/hub for your service that will route the signal to the set top boxes that are actually connected to your TV's. For internet purposes, the gateway also serves as a router and broadcast a wireless G signal for your home. Therefore, I'd plan on putting it where ever your computer is. After fixing the drop out issue we've had no problems. My HD channels look great, my DVR works well, the Total Home DVR feature is very convenient, I use HDMI cables without a problem, and my internet works smooth. I have the 6mbps speed and it is plenty for me. Like yg17 said, if you have other or more specific questions then feel free to ask. Oh, there's also a independent forum dedicated to Uverse called uverseusers.com, you may find some helpful information there as well. Best of luck with your purchase.

 

[yg17]

I read U-verse lags for things like XBox live. True?

I've never had a problem with it.

 

[sportsfanMAW]

Awesome! Thanks so much for your help guys, it really cleared things up for me.

 

[eldy]

They are shysters! The sales representatives and installers will tell you that you don't have to do anything for your rebates and that they will come automatically after 2-3 months. That is not the case! They will send you a tri-fold notice that looks like junk mail that instructs you to go to their website to redeem your rebate. They should put the notice on their bills where other notices go, but they don't.

HD quality is the lowest of any provider. Blacks are crushed and there are constant stutters (about once every 30 minutes) when watching TV and large internet downloads. I signed back up for non-u-verse AT&T DSL at 6 Mbit and there are no download stutters.

I'm near a VRAD and had the 2HD/2SD streams with 10/2 Mbit internet.

Use them as a last resort.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

I read U-verse lags for things like XBox live. True?

I have zero lag issue with it. Heck I can be running torrent files and not have lag issues most of the time but every not and then I have to turn off uTorrent to prevent lag.

TV and internet will not interfere with each other because they are completely different pipelines so to speak.

yg17 summed up most of the TV great so I will not add anything there.

For me I have 6 mbit internet and U200. I can have 2HD stream for TV going at one time. I love the service.